No, the Orioles started the five man rotation, which every team had to copycat, soon after that free agency was established and starting pitcher rapidly become the most expensive part of every team's roster. In an effort to "protect" that investment they came up with the nonsense of pitch counts and inning limits, instead of actually working pitchers to strengthen them. The downward spiral keeps continuing.

I forgot about Weaver and his pitch counts. It's strange because those Orioles still threw alot of complete games in those days. But your right that had to be the start of coddling pitchers.